Cherokee County
Fire & Emergency Services
Fire & Emergency Services
Twenty-four firefighters recently became paramedics after graduation ceremonies that were held last Wednesday night at the Cherokee Hall Auditorium located in the Cherokee County Administrative Building.
Scott Deal, Battalion Chief of Training, came forward to welcome family members and friends to the ceremony and later introduced Fire Chaplain, Don Williams, to give the invocation.
Randy Pierson, Paramedic Program Director, came to the podium to congratulate the new paramedics. Pierson stated that this group had went through 9,492 clinical hours of training and performed 1,300 pediatric patient assessments, 3,100 adult patient assessments, 1,775 geriatric patient assessments, 552 chest pains and administered 3,671 medications, started 2,556 IVs and intubated 201 live patients and 1,560 simulated patients. “When we started this course on September 24th and 25th of 2020, I told the students this is a marathon and you will feel like it’s two days a week forever! We started this course in the shadow of Covid hoping things would get better and they didn’t. We started the course offering the same class twice so that it was more accommodating and requiring less moves. Ultimately, we all made it to the end successfully.” said Pierson.
Cherokee County Fire Chief, Tim Prather, spoke next about leadership and vision. “Successful programs are usually a result of great leadership and vision. We could not have achieved the level of success we are fortunate to have today without our Medical Director, Dr. Jill Mabley and our Paramedic Program Director, Randy Pierson. They have brought a level of service excellence and training for pre-hospital emergency medical care that is practically unprecedented. They are bringing Cherokee County to the forefront of Advanced Life Support (ALS) education,” stated Prather.
Kristina Wigington, Paramedic Program Deputy Director, announced the recipient of the Dr. Jill Mabley Star of Life Award. The award was established to be given to a member of each paramedic class for academic achievement. The Star of Life Award was announced and presented to Paramedic, Kevin McArthur.
The firefighters who graduated from the paramedic class were asked to come down and receive their certificate of completion. Receiving their paramedic certification were: Robert Alberson, Connor Bourn, Anthony Ciorba, Amanda DeWoody, Randall Droke, Evan Groet, Nicholas Leslie, Josh Long, Eric Lusk, Trenton Mackey, Kevin McArthur, Eric Miller, Trevor Newberry, Paul Ribeiro, Kyle Ricker, Robert Romao, Lucas Vasquez, Micah Warren, Corey Webb, Justin Williams, Spence Williams, Drew Wilson and Michael Zuchegno.
After the presentation of the certificates, Kristina Wigington returned to the podium to present a Certificate of Service from the Georgia Department of Public Health to Tim Hicks, father of Justin Hicks, who was tragically killed on November 18th along with his wife, Amber. The certificate recognized Justin for his 8 year of service to the citizens of Georgia. Director Pierson came back to the podium to present Mr. Hicks and other family members with a special plaque honoring his son’s Certificate of Completion from the paramedic class. After receiving the certificate, Mr. Hicks shook hands and congratulated every member of Justin’s class.
Congratulations to all of our new paramedics for all their hard work and a job well done.